“We just want to have a conversation,” Hawk said, “about some recent events overseas.”
“Who are you guys with?” Miller asked, eyeing them closely.
Hawk put his right hand behind his back and wrapped his palm around the grip of his gun, keeping it there in case Miller made any sudden moves.
“Like I said, we’re just here to ask a few questions,” Hawk said.
“You still haven’t answered any of mine,” Miller said with a growl.
“You asked who we are, and I gave you our names,” Hawk said. “This doesn’t have to be that difficult.”
“Actually, you’re making this incredibly difficult,” Miller said as he put his hands on his hips. “Now, if you’re with the media and you want to do an interview out here, contact my office and we’ll arrange a time to talk. But this is my time off and my private property, and I’d appreciate it if you’d respect my wishes and leave.”
Big Earv cocked his head to one side. “Sir, is there a reason why you were recently in contact with a former Navy SEAL named Doug Mitchell?”
“Damnit,” Miller said. “I knew something wasn’t right. Who are you? NSA? Spooks? I’m not gonna warn you again. Unless you have a warrant to be here, leave or face the consequences.”
Hawk put his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. “All right, Admiral. Just calm down. We don’t want any trouble.”
“That’s right,” Miller said. “Now get the hell outta here.”
Not wanting to take his eyes off Miller, Hawk walked backward as did Big Earv. The dogs had returned to the porch and were lapping up water from their bowls. But Miller hadn’t acknowledged their presence, his steely gaze fixated on his two visitors.
Hawk and Big Earv eased back into their car.
“Now, scram,” Miller shouted, waving his hand at them.
Miller remained on his porch, refusing to move until they left. But Hawk wasn’t going anywhere.
“Stubborn sonofabitch,” Hawk said after two minutes had passed and Miller hadn’t moved.
“Well, we can’t stay here all day,” Big Earv said. “We need Miller to talk, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen how we envisioned it.”
“How we hoped it would happen,” Hawk said, wagging his index finger. “We wished he would just sit down and tell us everything, but this is exactly how I envisioned it.”
“He’s a dyed-in-the-wool patriot,” Big Earv said. “If he thinks that his way is what’s best for the country, he’s going to stick with it until the bitter end, like a soldier dying on a hill actually worth dying on.”
Hawk ignited the engine and then goosed the gas pedal a few times.
“What’s that going to accomplish?” Big Earv asked.
Hawk shrugged. “Put a little fear in him. Desperate people do desperate things. If I make him realize this is a desperate situation, he might make a mistake and play right into our hands.”
“You mean, like that?” Big Earv asked, pointing at the house.
Miller darted into the house and slammed the door behind him.
“You think he’s going to get a gun?” Big Earv asked.
“Maybe.”
“And that doesn’t concern you?”
“I’m betting that he doesn’t want to get into a shootout with us. It’d be a short one. He’s probably calling the cops, thinking his status as an admiral is going to coax the police to escort us off his property.”
“He’s not wrong about that, you know,” Big Earv said.
“Trying to win a trespassing conviction against us will be the least of his worries when the whole country finds out that he’s a traitor.”
Still no sign of Miller.
“Where did he go?” Hawk asked after another minute.
In the distance, Hawk heard the whine of a boat engine, the sound muffled to some degree.
“He went for the boat in the back,” Hawk said as he hustled out of the SUV, Big Earv right behind him. “Let’s grab the neighbor’s.”
Hawk raced across the back lawn toward a neighboring house. A man was working on the railing as the two agents approached. Hawk didn’t request permission, instead just holding out his hands and demanding the keys.
“Who are you?” the man asked as he dug into his pocket.
“That’s what the admiral wanted to know,” Hawk said.
They fired up the engine and tore out across the water behind Miller. Hawk turned on the coms to see if he could reach Alex.
“Are you there, Alex?” he asked.
“Loud and clear,” she said. “How are things going with the admiral?”
“At the moment, not too well,” Hawk said. “He took off in a boat and headed up the Chesapeake.”
“So how can I help?” she asked.
“Can you get satellite over our position?”
“Already on it.”
“Good,” Hawk said. “Do you see a boat headed north near us on the Chesapeake?”
“Tracking him right now,” she said.
“Whatever you do, don’t lose him,” he said. “We’re in the boat trailing him now, maybe a half-mile behind. For the moment, I can see him. But if he goes up the Potomac, I need you to track him, especially if he gets on land.”
“Roger that.”
Big Earv joined Hawk near the steering wheel, their conversation consisting of shouting over the wind roaring past them.
“Where do you think he’s taking us?” Hawk asked.
“I told you, the man is a Revolutionary War buff,” Big Earv said. “One of his dogs is named after the man who led patriots’ charge against the British on Wynn’s Island. The other one is named after Francis Marion, also known as the Swamp Fox.”
“I was looking for something a little more specific.”
“I have no idea where exactly he wants to go, but I can tell you it’ll be somewhere swampy.”
“In that case, we’re probably headed all the way back to Washington.”
Big Earv chuckled and slapped Hawk on the shoulder. “Your level of cynicism is another stratosphere.”
Hawk smiled wryly. “When you’ve been around Washington as long as we have, it’s not cynicism any more. It’s just reality.”
The two men settled in as Miller skimmed across the water, his boat outpacing Hawk and Big Earv but not by much. Over the next hour, Hawk kept a visual on Miller but could tell the admiral was consistently faster. Hawk contacted Alex to let her know they were relying more heavily on her once Miller turned west into the Potomac’s brackish waters.
For the next half-hour, Miller hugged the eastern shoreline of the river before taking a hard left and heading straight toward the mouth of the Yeocomico River.
“Alex, I need you to be my eyes and ears here,” Hawk said.
“He’s holding steady,” she said. “He won’t be going much farther because the river gets shallow quickly.”
Hawk estimated he was about two minutes behind Miller, which was ample time for the admiral to disappear in the swamp if he was familiar with the area. But Alex was Hawk’s ace in the hole.
“He’s beaching his craft,” Alex reported over the coms. “You should see his boat up ahead on the northern shore of the river.”
“Roger that,” Hawk said.
The Yeocomico snaked its way through a mix of cleared farmland and swampy forest. Hawk sped past docks, creating a much bigger wake than was permitted in the area.
“I see you,” Alex said. “You’ll see his boat around the next bend.”
“Do you still have visual on the admiral?” Big Earv asked.
“Roger that. He’s heading west, running up a rise at the moment.”
As Alex described, Hawk found Miller’s boat in short order. Hawk and Big Earv beached their boat and followed Alex’s directions.
Hawk palmed his weapon and as they trudged through the muddy terrain, Big Earv right behind him. They reached a rise and looked down into a small valley. With trees densely packed and daylight fading, they struggled to see the admiral.